Did You Know – Hush Puppies
Have you ever tasted HUSH PUPPIES? If you live in the south and order a fried seafood meal, chances are that you probably have. Hush Puppies are made from thick cornmeal batter, shaped into balls or other shapes and deep fried. They are crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside and delicious.
How did Hush Puppies get their name? Nobody knows for sure but here are two of the myths and then possibly the true story.
- STOP BARKING: The most common explanation is that when hunters and fishermen took their dogs along with them and the dogs would bark or howl scaring the wildlife, the hunters and fishermen would fry up some dough and throw it to the dogs to hush them up.
- FROM THE WAR: It is said that when Confederate soldiers were making dinner around the campfire and they heard the Yankee soldiers approaching, they would toss their yapping dogs some fried cornmeal cakes and ordered the dogs to “hush puppies!”
- SOUTH CAROLINA: At least two decades before “hush puppy” appeared in print, South Carolinians were enjoying what they called “red horse bread.” It wasn’t red in color and it had nothing to do with horses. Red horse was one of the common species of fish that were caught in South Carolina rivers and served at fish fries along the banks.
- RED HORSE BREAD: In the early 1900’s, Romeo Govan lived on the banks of the Edisto River. There he operated his club house, a frame structure with a neatly swept yard where guests came almost every day during fishing season to feast on fish of every kind, prepared in every way and the once eaten, never-to-be-forgotten red horse bread.That red horse bread was made by simply mixing cornmeal with water, salt, and egg then dropped by a spoonful into hot lard in which fish have been fried. Govan may well have originated the name “red horse bread,” since its earliest appearances in print are almost always in descriptions of a fish fry that he cooked.
- ROMEO GOVAN was an African American man born into enslavement around 1845. At the end of the Civil War, he settled on a plot of land close to Cannon’s Bridge, where he remained the rest of his life. He hosted fish fries and other entertainments that were attended by the most prominent members of the white community and the tips he earned enabled him to buy the house and surrounding land. Govan’s talents made him known to every sportsman in South Carolina. Romeo Govan died in 1915, but the red horse bread he made famous lived on, and it eventually spread throughout most of South Carolina as the standard accompaniment for a fried fish supper.
- GEORGIA: South Carolina was not the only place where Southerners were frying gobs of cornmeal batter. In 1940, Earl DeLoach, the fishing columnist for the Augusta Chronicle, noted that Red Horse cornbread is often called Hush Puppies on the Georgia side of the Savannah River.” They had been calling it that since at least 1927, when the Macon Telegraph reported that the men’s bible class of First Methodist Church was holding a fish fry where chairman Roscoe Rouse would “cook the fish, hushpuppies and make the coffee.”
- FLORIDA: Hush puppies first got national attention thanks to a bunch of tourists fishing down in Florida. In 1934, Pennsylvania’s Harrisburg Sunday Courier ran a travel piece about central Florida, where the author fished at Mr. Joe Brown’s camp on Lake Harris near Orlando. “Brown can cook,” the writer declared, and his menu included fried fish, French fried potatoes and a delicious cornbread concoction which Brown called Hush Puppies.
- RECIPE: Dan Beard devoted one of his monthly magazine columns to his fishing trip to Key West. He published the famous recipe of Mrs. J. G. Cooper, an expert on hush puppies. It called for one quart of white water-ground cornmeal, two eggs, three teaspoons of baking powder, and one teaspoon of salt, which were mixed into a batter and cooked in the same pan as the fish. When a correspondent for Modern Beekeeping visited a fish fry, he noted, “Every visiting lady was soon busy with pencil and paper taking down the recipe. (The men were too.)”
Source: http://www.SeriousEats.com
Photo: AI WP
http://www.InDianesKitchen.com
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Categories: Did You Know
Isn’t interesting where simple recipes get their name from in history – I like that hush puppies one 🤓👍🏼 – as a side note when I was in 6th grade I had a pair of “blue suede hush puppies.”
They still make Hush Puppy shoes! I love the blue suede shoes, I bet you were the hit of the school. I remember Hush Puppies but my favorite shoes were Penny Loafers. Do you remember those? There was a slot on the top of the shoe where you could insert a Penny.
Yes – my mother had those as a girl and so did my aunt (father’s sister).
I guess we’ll never know for sure
Right!
the only ones I’ve ever had were from long John silvers, so I’d like to try real ones…
I hope you can someday. I have had them many times and not liked them until a seafood place near us makes them and they are delicious.
Have you ever tried them rolled in powdered sugar?
Yum, that would make them like a donut hole! Somebody else dipped them in honey. I have only eaten them plain.
My Dad and his friends regularly had fish fries and we always had hush puppies. Yum! Rainbow trout, hush puppies and close slaw.
What a perfect combination. Is he in the south?
They look really tasty!
They are, thank you!
I do enjoy hushpuppies, especially dipped in honey. Now I have the recipe to make my own.
I have never tried them with honey! Yummy!
Oh yes I had them for the first time in the South years ago and I was in love!
They are delicious
It’s fascinating how myths and urban legends are born and I liken them to the different theories as to why hush puppies are named as such. I’ll have to think hard whether I’ve had one before. I don’t know!
They are basically a meatball size of cornbread.
Sounds good to me!
I love hushpuppies! I’ve not had them since my mom and I last visited Long John Silver’s for a cod dinner. She loved the coleslaw, I loved the hush puppies, so we had a good tradeoff. Mom’s hushpuppies for my cup of coleslaw – very good trade!
That was a great trade! I just read they are building one near me soon.
I thought so too!! I didn’t know Long John Silver’s was still in business. My mom was not a fish lover (as you know), but she liked their battered cod. Fish and chips was a big thing in Canada, English style, where they have battered cod and big chips with malt vinegar – we never used tartar sauce or lemon. In fact, when we went to visit my grandmother, there was a fish and chips place nearby, so I always walked there and brought back dinners. So any other fish – nope, but she liked battered cod. I liked the cod there, but also their mixed shrimp platter.
I think McDonalds fish sandwich is cod. I can eat that but I have to add either lettuce or cheese to it and a bunch of tartar sauce to kill the taste. That’s how long it’s been since I bought that!
I can’t remember the last time I had one – decades really. Maybe went there during Lent to get fast food and that is why. I don’t think my mom would have had one – I think she liked Long John Silvers as it reminded her of English fish and chips. But I don’t think the Brits have hushpuppies. 🙂
All of the hush puppies I have had over the years were so tasteless until I went to the local seafood place, I love theirs!
I don’t think I’ve had them anywhere else!
I have had them but every time I didn’t like them. Only one place that I like and I’m happy it’s close to home. Lol
Well enjoy it when it opens – we used to ask for extra “crisps” with the fish. We liked them too.
I have never eaten Hush Puppies. I love the explanations of where the name comes from – the one about the dogs that stop barking when Hush Puppies are thrown to them is excellent – whether it’s a fact or not 😁.
I have had good ones and bad ones. Here in Ohio we have a restaurant called Jolly Rogers and they sell fried seafood and have my favorite hush puppies. It was a fun one to research. Thank you Corna!
Love your food history posts!
Thank you Linda!
I’ve never really been a fan myself, but I can’t help loving them purely because of the joy they bring my grandma. Whenever we take her out to eat and she finds out they have hush puppies, her whole face lights up. She’s got a touch of dementia now, so we’re seeing more of that childlike side of her—it’s both beautiful and bittersweet. But watching her eyes light up over something so simple, like a child getting a Happy Meal… how could I not love them too?
That is such a sweet thing to do for her. Darn dementia hit our family too, not an easy thing to deal with but fun to hear them reminisce about their past.
Thanks for the history of the Hush Puppy. It seems I have had them from several sources over time, some much better than others…
I agree there seems to be more places I haven’t liked them too. I am so happy to have found a seafood restaurant that makes them and I love them!
I loved reading all these stories! I have never had a hush puppy
I’m sure you’re not alone. If you ever see them on a menu, give them a try.
I’m a Southern girl and am well acquainted with hush puppies. I love them!
Definitely and they are the original ones I bet!